Top Small Business Tools for 2022

Are you a small business owner who is looking to take your company to the next level? If so, you're in luck! In this blog post, we will be discussing some of the best tips and techniques for achieving small business success. Stay tuned – you don't want to miss a thing!

The two most common things we hear owners and managers tell us are that bandwidth and lack of organizational processes are holding their businesses/departments back from achieving desired success.

A documented workflow and technology growth strategy are essential to taking any business from good to great with less effort. SIMPLE operational strategies can be a catalyst for a business however, when they become too complex to monitor or maintain properly after an implementation, you will simply be creating unnecessary technical debt for the business. Then you're right back where you started, frustrated as hell.

The bad news is that we don't have a time machine, but the good news is that we're sharing a small war chest of resources that can support you and your organization in a variety of critical ways. Below we list a few of our recommendations that have been proven to help take our clients to the next level, and we even use some of these internally at Carrera Consulting.

Bandwidth Tools

• Calendar time blocking - Having this no-cost discipline will allow you to 5x your output and become less stressed at the end of each day!

• Toggl - Effortless time tracking and reporting. What gets measured gets accomplished, so start keeping track of what you and your team are doing.

• Sprout Social - The best social media publishing tool on the market. Schedule postings across multiple platforms and track your engagements.

• Jasper.ai - This is the perfect tool for those who prefer to work smarter rather than harder. Let's be honest, most of us spend countless hours copywriting mediocre content. Jasper is the secret weapon that every small business should be used for AI-powered content writing. A free trial is available, give it a shot!

Organization Tools

• ClickUp - The most robust project management tool on the market. We currently use this for all of our client projects. They guarantee to save you at least one day a week.

• Trello - The OG of kanban project management. Simple to use with powerful automation sequences. You can't go wrong starting with Trello & Atlassian products.

• Hubspot - This is hands down the best all-in-one CRM for small businesses, especially if you don't have one in place. Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are also highly recommended but please consult with your business operations team or reach out to us before making any commitments.

• Pics.io - The lowest cost, professional DAM (digital asset manager) that lives on top of your Google Drive. Instead of using your email or a disorganized shared folder, you can effortlessly tag your files and pictures using metadata for easy organization and efficient searching. Easily save hours of your week by having a DAM in place.

• Trainual - This is your business playbook (aka owners manual). Having this tool will allow you to take new hires and turn them into rockstars within days or weeks! It can also serve as a tool to upskill your workforce so your leaders can finally take a vacation without worrying about staff not knowing how to solve a challenge that arises.

Remember, a tool can only be as effective as the operator using it. So keep in mind that these tools are great "out of the box", but they must be customized to fit your organization's workflow. Otherwise, you may get yourself into a bigger mess than what you started with. Whatever you do, don't forget to document what you're doing so you don't have to retrace your footsteps every time you have transitions in responsibilities in the workplace.

If you enjoyed some or all of these recommendations, we encourage you to subscribe to our monthly newsletter or simply feel free to reach out to interact with one of our staff about your current business struggles.